1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to distributed computer systems and graphical user interfaces. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for updating a "wallpaper" for a graphical user interface by accessing a central repository for wallpaper over a network to update a wallpaper based upon personal preferences of a computer user.
2. Related Art
The advent of graphical user interfaces for computer systems has lead to the development of "wallpaper" for graphical displays. Wallpaper is typically a type of picture, graphical image or pattern used to customize a graphical user interface in an aesthetically pleasing way. In a window-based operating system such as Windows 95, produced by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., wallpaper often takes the form of a background picture or pattern over which windows can be opened or otherwise manipulated. Many computer users customize their background wallpaper with digitized family pictures or images relating to sports and current events. This gives computer users the ability to express their personality and interests.
At present, most computer system users use the default wallpaper bitmaps provided by operating systems such as Windows 95. Others retrieve bitmaps from a floppy drive, a CD-ROM drive, or from a publicly available source such as the Internet. In any of the above cases, a computer user must manually locate wallpaper images, transfer the images and reconfigure display options every time the wallpaper is changes. These tasks are time-consuming. Consequently, most computer users change wallpaper infrequently, if at all.
What is needed is a system that facilitates automatic updating of wallpaper with pictures tailored to specific interests of a computer user. Additionally, what is needed is a system that allows computer users with similar interests to share interesting wallpaper.